Television Woes

Readers may recall that our tv broke down just before we left Darwin, and that we were told it couldn't be fixed. After many phone calls the manufacturers agreed to replace the set under warranty, and said that a new one would be waiting for us at Broome, which was the next place we would be getting to where they had an agent.

3 weeks later when we got to Derby, and the first mobile phone reception we'd been able to get since Katherine, there was a message waiting for us from the tv people, asking for proof of purchase, despite the fact that this had all been discussed and covered while we were in Darwin. Several phone calls later they agreed that, yes, they would definitely be sending the set to Broome. Needless to say when we got to Broome a few days later there was no set waiting for us. The agents were very helpful and chased up the manufacturers, who said it had definitely been sent and supplied a consignment note number. Days went past, and on the day before we were due to leave the set finally arrived, just in time for the start of the final and deciding test match at The Oval. Not only that, because our original set was a superseded model, the new one could receive High Definition.

We excitedly got it out of the box, read the instructions and did an autotune. 4 analog stations and 10 digital! Mind you, most of the digital stations are still showing the same thing as the corresponding analog ones, but exciting nevertheless. We turned the set off to standby and continued with that day's activities. That evening, just before 6:00 (one advantage of the WA time zone is that the cricket starts earlier here), we turned the set on ........ or at least tried to. No response when we pressed the on button on the remote control, no response when we pressed the power button on the set. To cut a long story short, it took us most of the evening to figure out that the set is faulty - once it warms up, nothing works any more. If we leave the power cord out, then a couple of hours later you can turn it on and get crystal clear reception - for about 10 minutes. Then the picture fades to fuzz and all the control buttons stop working - the only way to turn it off again is to pull out the power cord.

The next day we'd planned a long trip to Port Hedland, but we knew the agents opened at 7:30 so we called in there on the way out of Broome, only to find that all the technical staff were at Perth on a course, and the office was manned only by the receptionist. We tried to ring the manufacturer, but as we had found previously it was impossible to actually get to talk to anyone apart from the receptionist, so we left a message for someone to ring us back and set off.

It was quite late in the day when we arrived at Port Hedland, and we weren't surprised to find that the tv people hadn't returned our call. We sent them an email telling them the situation, and said we would be looking to get the set fixed and sending them the bill. We then checked the online yellow pages for tv repair folk in town. 2 options were shown - the people we had already spoken to 600 km northwards in Broome, or a company nearly 2,000 km southwards in Geraldton. Who'd have thought that a town of around 15,000 people wouldn't have any of them capable of fixing a tv set?

So now we're in the situation of still not having a tv, and no prospect of getting one for at least another 2 weeks until we arrive in Geraldton, and even then it will only be if the fault in this set can be fixed. Another game of cards anyone?